| Staff REPORTER |
ITANAGAR, Apr 18: In an encouraging ‘development’, Arunachal Pradesh is witnessing the women-led conduction of election process in many pockets of the hilly state, which is going to simultaneous polls on Friday to elect 50 MLAs of the 60-member Assembly and two Lok Sabha MPs.
Six of the 28 districts are being led by lady officers, with five of them being District Election Officers (DEOs) and the one at Itanagar Capital Complex working as Returning Officer (RO), Chief Electoral Officer of Arunachal Pradesh, Pawan Kumar Sain said on Thursday.
In Roing, the headquarters of Lower Dibang Valley district, the DEO, SP, AROs and majority of the polling officials are all women. “It’s a very positive story that how women's representation has been more in such a remote corner of Arunachal Pradesh. They are all working with great enthusiasm,” he said.
Another positive story is that the insurgency-infested Tirap district is being led by a lady DEO. West Siang DC is also a lady, who is working as RO of the Arunachal West Parliamentary Constituency as well.
Kurung Kumey, which was considered the toughest area in the case of elections, is also being led by a young lady officer, he said.
“With the lady officers coming forward and providing leadership in such tough terrain with bare minimum of basic amenities, I feel, it’s a very positive story for Arunachal Pradesh,” Sain remarked.
The CEO also informed that out of the total of 2,226 polling stations (PS) in the state, 150 polling booths will be managed by women.
The number of youth-managed PS will be 50 and three PwD-managed polling booths – they are in Changlang, Longding and Aalo.
Moreover, four polling booths have been identified as ‘model’ polling stations, with two of them in Lohit and one each in West Siang and Papum Pare.
Altogether 50,842 government officers, including 595 sector officers and 363 police sector officers, presiding officers, head of departments (HoDs) are being engaged for conducting the election process, he said.
The CEO informed that 2,073 polling parties were today dispatched to their respective destinations from the district headquarters. Till yesterday, 153 polling teams had left for their respective polling booths.
He also informed that 864 vehicles transporting EVMs, VVPATs and other poll materials have been fitted with the GPS tracker, which can provide real-time traffic conditions.
Webcasting facility will be available in 1108 polling stations, out of which we will do offline recording in 354 polling stations and online webcasting in 754 polling booths which can be monitored live from ECI headquarters at Delhi and Nirvachan Bhawan in Itanagar, Sain said.
The CEO also informed that 155 senior citizens aged above 85 years availed the home-voting facility in Parliamentary Constituencies (PCs) and 123 in Assembly Constituencies (A/Cs), while 75 PwD voters availed the facility in PCs and 60 others in A/Cs. This means, altogether 230 votes were cast in PCs and 183 in A/Cs, he said.
615 micro observers (MOs) are being deployed for the entire state, out of which 155 will stay put at the vulnerable polling stations and 417 MOs in critical polling booths, Sain informed.
He also stated that altogether 34 MCC violation cases, and 40 law and order related incidents were reported across the state wherein one individual died and 33 others were injured. Moreover, all 32,424 licensed arms, and 753 seized illegal arms have been deposited in police stations.
In all, 180 people have been identified who can be the probable source of trouble on the poll day. Moreover, 67 vulnerable hamlets were also identified for which the EC has made ‘special’ security arrangements to keep constant watch on them, he said.
The CEO, meanwhile, revealed that in all, 50 people, including contesting candidates in Tirap and Longding were bound down during a meeting with the concerned DCs and SPs "following yesterday’s incident". In the meeting, it was conveyed to them that no violence or threatening or intimidation will be tolerated.
“In case of recurrence of such incidents, we will be forced to send reports to the Election Commission of India which may lead to their disqualification,” the CEO cautioned.